“No, you might as well stay,” he suddenly tells me. “Marley is right to be upset. I… I don’t want her to think that it’s OK to break or forget a promise and I’m sure you’ll find out what happened here later on, because she will tell you herself, so you might as well stay.”
“So, you’ll come with us?” Marley asks him, hope sparkling in her eyes.
“Let me just make a few calls, and then I’m all yours,” he smiles.
“Great!” Marley claps her hands together. “This will be the first time all three of us go somewhere!”
“All three?” he frowns, looking up at me, then back at her. I think he likes the idea about as much as I do.
“Yes,” Marley nods. “The bet was you spend time with us, not just me.”
He doesn’t seem to remember that part, but he gives in easily, just like he did just now, and about an hour later, we’re sitting in the park, underneath a big oak tree, which is providing us with enough shade. Marley is munching on her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, everything about this feeling right as rain to her, but I can’t say that Mr. Hart and I share the same conviction.
Every time he looks in my direction, I feel the need to look away, but I don’t. This is the first time I see him in his casual clothes, not in his fancy suits and ties, and I have to say, he looks drop dead gorgeous. I’m not even sure that he’s noticed the looks he’s gotten as we were walking through the park, but I sure have. Strangely, I feel proud to be walking with the two of them, and even more weirdly, feeling like I’m somehow a part of their little family… at least for a very little while.
I know this is all silly, but when you work with kids, it’s hard not to get attached, especially when the kid in question is Marley. All you want to do is keep her in your arms and listen to that cute little voice tell you all kinds of funny stories, until she closes her eyes and falls asleep for the day.
She finishes her sandwich, and gets permission to go pick a few flowers, leaving me and her father alone… something that has happened several times before, but never under these circumstances.
I look over at Marley, but I can feel his gaze on my cheek, as if burning a hole in it. I dare not look in his direction.
“Was it difficult to get out of work?” I blurt out before even thinking but by the time I realize how stupid that question is, it’s too late to take it back. He’s already heard it.
He shrugs. “No one can say no to the boss.”
He’s still looking at me, with a puzzled look in his eyes, almost as if he’s seen me for the first time and he can’t figure out what’s my purpose here.
“That must be a great feeling, Mr. Hart,” I try a smile, but it turns out all awkward. I hope he doesn’t think I’m trying to hit on him, because I’m not. I’m just trying to make small talk, but I obviously suck at it.
He frowns. “Dominic.”
I wonder why he’s telling me his name. I know his name.
“You can call me Dominic,” he clarifies.
My lips part, and I almost gasp, but the noise dies out inside my mouth. “Dominic,” I echo, not sure why I’m being told this.
A part of me suddenly becomes all giddy. Does this mean we’re closer? Absolutely not, another part of me simplifies. This means nothing. We’re just in a different situation from the one we’re usually in, and I guess he feels stupid being referred to as Mr. Hart around people who don’t know our relation.
But then, why is he staring at me so intently?
I look away, finding safety in Marley. She’s busy picking flowers and putting them together in one hand, creating a small bouquet. She is so intent on doing it, lost in her own little world. How I envy that. My world changed the moment my dad was falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit and was sentenced to what seems like an eternity even now, from an adult perspective, let alone from a child’s view.
“This is how you usually spend your outings?” he suddenly asks. He adjusts himself a little on the blanket, but it doesn’t escape my attention that he’s closer now. I can smell his cologne. It washes over me, and all I can do is surrender to the masculine, citrusy scent.
“You mean, I sit around and do nothing, while Marley just frolics about?” I try a joke, and surprise, surprise… it works.
Mr. Dominic Hart, the grumpy billionaire, actually smiles.
And his smile is to die for.
“That’s not what I meant,” he says, still smiling, flashing that row of gorgeous pearly whites.
“But it is what we do,” I say again, and we both smile this time, unable to take our eyes off each other, as if we’re seeing each other again after years and years of being apart, and we want to soak up every single change that is visible on the other person’s face. “You pay me to watch your daughter frolic like the little imp that she is.”
I don’t know what’s gotten over me. I never talk to him like this. I guess it’s the setting that’s different and I just can’t be as professional as usual. Not when he’s looking so handsome, and every single woman within a five-mile radius has got her eye on him. I want them to see that it’s me who’s making him smile… for whatever reason.
“As long as she is happy,” he says, turning fully to face me. “You make her happy, Lilly. I can’t imagine money being better spent than that.”